It is well known to provide an oil supply system for an engine that supplies oil from a reservoir, often referred to as a sump, to various components on the engine requiring a supply of oil, such as bearings, pistons, hydraulic valve mechanisms, and piston cooling jets.
Approaches are known which adjust oil pressure supplied to various components of an engine based on engine rotational speed (RPM). For example, oil pressure may be increased in response to increases in engine speed in order to overcome centrifugal forces in the engine crankshaft while meeting engine lubrication requirements.
However, the inventors herein have recognized that engine rotational speed may change rapidly during certain engine operating conditions and oil pressure adjustments based on engine speed may arrive too late due to the response time of oil supply system components, such as an oil pump or valves. For example, typical engine oil pressure response is 0.2 to 1 second depending on oil pump conditions. Thus, oil pressure adjustments based on a current engine rotational speed may be delayed under certain conditions which may lead to degradation of engine components which rely on accurate oil pressure adjustments, for example.
Accordingly, systems and methods are disclosed herein to at least partially address the above issues. In one example approach, a method for controlling oil flow in an engine is provided. The method comprises adjusting oil pressure supplied to the engine based on engine acceleration. For example, engine acceleration may be used to predict future engine lubrication requirements so that oil pressure adjustments may be scheduled accordingly.
In this way, oil pressure adjustments may be scheduled accordingly to account for oil pressure response time, engine response time, and/or actuator response time, for example, so that lubrication requirements of engine components may be met under different engine operating conditions. Further, degradation of engine components may be reduced since current oil pressure demands by the engine are met in a timely fashion rather than implemented in a delayed fashion.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.